Unbuilt Utopian Cities PPC.

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AUTHOR Morrison PPC BOARD 250X172MM

Unbuilt Utopian Cities 1460 to 1900:

Reconstructing their Architecture and Political Philosophy

Tessa Morrison, The University of Newcastle, Australia

Reconstructing their Architecture and Political Philosophy

Unbuilt Utopian Cities 1460 to 1900:
Bringing together ten utopian works that mark important points in the history and an evolution in
social and political philosophies, this book not only reflects on the texts and their political
philosophy and implications, but also, their architecture and how that architecture informs the
political philosophy or social agenda that the author intended. Each of the ten authors
expressed their theory through concepts of community and utopian architecture, but each
featured an architectural solution at the centre of their social and political philosophy, as none of
the cities were ever built, they have remained as utopian literature.

Some of the works examined are very well-known, such as Tommaso Campanella’s Civitas Solis,
while others such as Joseph Michael Gandy’s Designs for Cottages, are relatively obscure.
However, even with the best known works, this volume offers new insights by focusing on the
architecture of the cities and how that architecture represents the author’s political philosophy. It
reconstructs the cities through a 3-D computer program, ArchiCAD, using Artlantis to render.
Plans, sections, elevations and perspectives are presented for each of the cities. The ten cities
are: Filarete—Sforzina; Albrecht Dürer—Fortified Utopia; Tommaso Campanella—The City of the
Sun; Johann Valentin Andreae—Christianopolis; Joseph Michael Gandy— An Agricultural
Village; Robert Owen—Villages of Unity and Cooperation; James Silk Buckingham—Victoria;
Robert Pemberton—Queen Victoria Town; King Camp Gillette—Metropolis; and Bradford
Peck—The World a Department Store.

Each chapter considers the work in conjunction with contemporary thought, the political
philosophy and the reconstruction of the city. Although these ten cities represent over 500 years
of utopian and political thought, they are an interlinked thread that had been drawn from
literature of the past and informed by contemporary thought and society. The book is structured
in two parts: the utopian Renaissance cities and the utopian cities of the Industrial Revolution.

The subject of unbuilt utopian cities is fascinating. While built cities may survive for centuries,
they are vulnerable to decay and destruction through natural forces, or, in our increasingly
dystopian global society, through war and terrorism. Unbuilt, they hover endlessly between the
potential and the actual. Tessa Morrison’s approach is both scholarly and accessible. The
illustrations are illuminating, and the historical context for the evolution of the ideas is explained.
This challenges the reader to consider the utopian plans from the perspective of their creators, Unbuilt Utopian Cities
TESSA MORRISON

who were imagining the future, rather than analysing them with the benefit of hindsight.

1460 to 1900:
Lorna Davidson, Director, New Lanark Trust and
Hon. Secretary of the Utopian Studies Society (Europe)

Reconstructing their Architecture

Cover illustration: Tessa Morrison. and Political Philosophy

TESSA MORRISON